Kappa Biriyani – Unforgettable night outs in Thattukada!!

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Cochin town has always offered me phenomenally exciting night outs in thattukada (road side eateries). This is my town, and this is my home. “Me and my boys (and my one wife)” will be back in town soon enough…. When I am out with my friends in Cochin, there is a reassuring feeling in my mind that everything is going to be good. That tonight, we are going to have the time of our lives, and that everything in life is going to be A-Okay.

Back in Manchester, after work, my friends and I enjoy the evenings quite a bit, but nights out in Manchester are quite different from Cochin. The bars and clubs are always packed in the summer, and the popular ones always have pretty big lines to get in. However, they all lack the life, the excitement and the sheer fun feeling that bars and lounges in Cochin offer you. I miss the feeling of being in my hometown, the feeling that just outside this lounge are the same streets that I spent a majority of my lifetime with my friends during a better part of my college days.

I wholeheartedly believe that Beef Dry Fry, Chicken Tikka and Kappa Biriyani add spice to your night! I am yet to have another culinary experience that can give me a “feel-good” high in life!

After a good night of social activities in Cochin, we usually end up in one of the early morning breakfast places. These are usually crowded with people trying to get one last bite in, before hitting the sack to sleep off a Sunday. Kerala’s national food by choice, the famous Porotta and curry is the best thing there is to follow a series of non-stop all night excitement. The atmosphere, the thrill and the fun of sitting on the benches outside at these Thattukadas and eating simply is the best way to finish off an exciting night out with your friends. This lip-smacking goodness of spicy flavored kappa biriyani offers me a small piece of heaven every single time!

The kappa biryani resembles a khichdi, and is made with boiled kappa or tapioca. A tadka of green chillies, curry leaves and mustard seeds is added before the mixture is beaten with a wooden pestle. A beef masala mixture that stands in a pan, is tossed with the mashed tapioca before it’s served steaming.

I have never seen tapioca used in a savory way. Grew up having tapioca pudding in a rotation of family desserts my mom would prepare but can’t say I ever miss! You have broadened my horizons Sumith! Happy weekend!

Oh wow! Never in my whole life have I wanted to eat tapioca before … you have quite literally changed my life – this looks and sounds SO delicious. I know I will love it. And by the way, I love the windows on your life both in India and in Manchester too …. its a really delicous mix!

Hi Osyth, me too started loving tapioca with fish curry and beef. It is very delicious and rich in fibre. Please check one of my old post of deconstructed tapioca and fish curry in fish category, you will get more obsessed with tapioca. Yes it is very delicious!! And glad you like those comparisons😄

I’ll be popping over to that post shortly. We used to call tapioca ‘frogspawn’ which was horribly off-putting but I’m feeling very ready to embrace it’s wonders and you are wholly responsible for this u-turn!

Fantastic dish Sumith, road side food is always so good. I think it’s because it’s all freshly prepared using good quality ingredients usually by a home cook. I could eat this any time of day. Also, your salt and pepper shakers are adorable!!!

This is so cool Sumith! I have had Kappa meen curry and I absolutely love it. But never tried Kappa biryani. I will definitely make this one. I am sure this will be incredibly delicious! Thanks for the recipe 🙂

That Cochin offers solid protein street food like beef fry and fish curries in abundance all day & night through earns it my full-blown respect every single time – wish more of our uptight, perpetually insecure, easily offended cities & their keepers could learn a thing or two from it, if you get my drift;-) Loved the sketching of the nostalgia in your post – always a special thing when it is a living phenomenon and not some dead remembrance. May you, your family & buddies have a roaring time whenever you are back home.

Looks delicious! My unforgettable experience of Cochin was buying fish at a roadside stall after eating a delicious meen curry at a restaurant in Cochin on my way to airport, getting it cleaned and packed (fit to fly) all the while throwing quick glances at my husband’s tense face looking at his watch and my kids waiting impatiently in the cab. but it was all worth it when we enjoyed some delicious kerala fish recipes after getting back home in Hyderabad.